Commonly, a singulator conveyor system is used for alignment and singulation of packages, goods, and materials. An example of a singulator conveyor system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,204, hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. For example, the singulator conveyor system is employed in packaging facilities such as courier facilities so packaging can be identified and automatically processed through sorting equipment. The singulator conveyor system has skewed or angled rollers to move the packages to one side of the singulator conveyor system, typically along a guard rail or an edge guide. A technique of gradually increasing a surface speed of the singulator conveyor system is used to create gaps between individual ones of the packages, resulting in the packages being aligned in a single file orientation. The most common singulator conveyor system design incorporates a flat drive belt that contacts the rollers and provides drive through friction. Such a conveyor system is identified by the Conveyors Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) as a belt driven live roller conveyor (BDLR).
Because the rollers on the singulator conveyor system are not perpendicular to a side frame, a series of drive motors and drive belts are needed instead of a single drive belt in order to drive rollers over an entire length of the singulator conveyor system. The series of drive belts forms wear patterns on the rollers. Since the singulator conveyor system requires the series of the drive belts, consequently, there are also a large number of moving parts resulting in significant maintenance efforts and manufacturing costs.
The conveyor system typically consist of tubular rollers. For certain material handling applications, the rollers are driven by a torque transmitting mechanism such as a friction belt, multi-V belt, chain, timing belt or other types of belts, for example. The torque transmitting mechanism typically engages with a hub of the rollers. However, the typical construction of the rollers used in this type of conveyor is complex due to a high duty cycle and a requirement for minimal maintenance of the conveyor rollers. The conveyor rollers have a combination of machined components and welded sub-assemblies to create a double, spring loaded shaft assembly that is continuous throughout an entire length of the roller. The spring loading causes the shaft assembly to urge a shaft outwardly from ends of the rollers as the shaft and/or conveyor frame begins to wear. As a result, the rollers remain properly mounted within the conveyor frame. However, as mentioned above, these assemblies are complex and can be costly to manufacture and are unable to withstand heavier loads and higher speeds or loads applied to the rollers. Additionally, rollers disposed perpendicular to the frame also include complex assemblies similar to the disposed at an angle.
Other examples of rollers with spring loaded components are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,380,104, 6,053,298, and U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2007/0261933, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. However, these examples of spring loaded rollers are also complex, costly to manufacture and maintain, difficult to assemble, and also may not be able to withstand higher speeds or heavier loads of rollers.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a cartridge bearing assembly for a conveyor roller configured for use with a torque transmitting device that minimizes wear and maintenance, facilitates ease of assembly, and minimizes manufacturing costs and complexity of the conveyor rollers.